Murphy – When you hear the name David Gentry, local high school football fans immediately think about the Hall of Fame football coach who led Murphy to nine state championships and built a program that was feared across North Carolina.
However, what about the man? How did Gentry get to that point?
The story begins on May 6, 1946, when Gentry was born in Asheville. His father, Wyatt Henry Gentry, was a Nazarene minister and soon moved the family to Hendersonville to start a new church there.
Gentry said his father was a hard worker who used all of his time and energy to start and pastor the new church. His mother, Parsadie Gentry, was a stay-at-home mom, and Gentry called her “a saint.”
Playing with older kids
Gentry did not gain his interest in sports from his father.
“My father was a dedicated minister, and he started the church in a tent in 1947. A few years later, it moved into the courthouse. Then they built a new church, and it became the largest Nazarene Church in North Carolina in its eighth year. He worked all the time and was not a sportsman, Gentry said.
He got his love of sports from his older brother.
“When I was growing up, boys from around our neighborhood would always be playing sports, and they would all be my brother’s age. When I got old enough to play, I would always play with them, so I was always playing with older kids than myself,” Gentry said.
“It didn’t matter what sports we were playing. I was always playing with kids three or four years older than me, and I think it helped me get better.”
Gentry added that they played whatever sport was that season, baseball in spring and summer, football in the fall and basketball in the winter. When they played baseball, it was next to a cornfield; and when the ball went into the cornfield, they would have to go hunt for it because they only had one.
As a child, Gentry remembered that he and his brother would listen to the Mutual Game of the Day, a baseball game broadcast of the New York Yankees, which is how Gentry became a Yankees fan.
“We listened to all sports we could find on the radio because we didn’t have a TV in our house until I was in the eighth grade. Dad was very conservative. I don’t believe I had a pair of shorts on till I was a teenager,” Gentry said.
“We weren’t allowed to go to the movies. Real strict, but it didn’t hurt me.”
Playing in yard, schools
Gentry’s first participation in organized sports was Little League Baseball. He only played half a year. “My little league was the back yard,” he added.
Gentry started playing football in the eighth grade. The coach at Edneyville High School saw him in a seventh-grade physical education class and invited him to scrimmage with the varsity next year.
“He wouldn’t let me play in a game, but I got to scrimmage with them as an eighth-grader. I was not too much more than a tackling dummy that year. They won the conference but got beat in the playoffs by Andrews,” Gentry said.
“My brother was the best back we had, and they knocked him out in the Andrews game. I mean, he didn’t know where he was at.”
Gentry started the next year as a 125-pound outside linebacker.
“I’d hit your ass,” he said ab out being undersized. “I got my first touchdown against Tryon in the ninth grade. I was real proud of that.”
Gentry started at running back as a sophomore, when Edneyville went into a new conference that included powerhouses like Reynolds. Their best season was his senior year, when they went 8-2. Gentry also played baseball, basketball and track, being named All-Conference in all four sports.
Playing for moments
One basketball game that was memorable was against Hendersonville High School.
“We never played Hendersonville in anything, but I came into the basketball coach’s office and he said we got a game with Hendersonville, and I said that was good. He then told me it was on a Wednesday night, and that was not good,” Gentry said.
“One unwritten rule at home was you went to church on Sunday, Sunday night and Wednesday night. I went home and told mama, she smoothed things over with dad and I got to play.
“I was a shooter, and a shooter is going to shoot. Every time I got a shot, I took it, so we went to Hendersonville. Their front court was no shorter than 6’4’’ and they were good basketball players. Our tallest guy was 6’3’’.
“I didn’t miss a shot in warmups, and I never missed a shot for three quarters. At the end of the third quarter, I had 28 points and Hendersonville had 27 points, and we went onto win the game. I also got to play in an All-Star game against Henry Logan.”
Logan played at Stephen Lee High School, a segregated black school in Asheville. Gentry said he was an amazing athlete.
Gentry went to Western Regionals in track and finished second in the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes, coming in second to the eventual state champion in both events.
‘I was playing for me’
Gentry shared that his parents didn’t actually come to one of his games until he was in college.
“Dad was working all the time, and he never talked to me about sports. It didn’t bother me though, because No. 1, I knew they loved me, and I wasn’t playing to get their approval. I was playing for me,” Gentry said.
“One time, though, dad had some visiting ministers in for a revival, and they walked into the living room and saw my trophies. I heard dad tell them that they were his son’s, and he was really proud of him.”
The only other time his dad had a conversation about sports was during his sophomore year, when his dad asked him if he thought about taking some time off from sports to work and save money for college. Gentry replied, “Dad, I’m going to get a college scholarship.”
Gentry said they did not have game film back in those days, so the only way you got a scholarship was to try out at the schools. Gentry’s father drove him there.
Gentry got his first offer from Guilford College. He went to Elon University and, after working out, the coach asked him what they offered him at Guilford. Gentry told them they offered $400, and the coach told him he would get him more. He got $450 from Elon, which was almost half of the tuition at that time.
Next week: Gentry takes his talents to Elon and beyond en route to becoming the legendary Murphy football coach